Amish Information Systems reminded me
of when MPs and newspapers etc talk about a rise in VAT or income tax and say "that now makes VAT 20 pence in the pound".
I don't need to be spoken to like an imbecile, I can understand percentages. I know what 20% means.
I guess it made sense when we used pounds shillings and pence but we don't need it since we went decimal which was 40 sodding years ago.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Mon 4 Apr 2011, 22:16, 6 replies)

Aha!
I reminded someone of something. My life is complete!

But this in turn reminds me of reason 141,678 to hate the Daily Hate Mail. They still insist on saying how expensive petrol is in gallons. "Petrol hits £7 a gallon."

Who even knows what that means any more? Is it cheap? Is it expensive? You might as well quote it in Goats per Fahrenheit for all the intuitive sense of expensiveness it conveys.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Mon 4 Apr 2011, 22:34, closed)

Fahrenheit and the Daily Mail
...which then reminds me of a letter that was once in their pages that essentially went "Let's go back to using fahrenheit as half the country don't understand centigrade". No consideration for the half of the country that don't get fahrenheit! Knowing the Daily Mail, the writer was being serious rather than ironic.

And why is it that there are still folks out there who can still convert decimal money bad to old money again? What's the point? It's never coming back and from everything I know about it, good riddance!
(An eejit passing by in a purple satin skirt with sparkly bits, Mon 4 Apr 2011, 22:56, closed)

An infomative footnote from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
"NOTE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND AMERICANS: One shilling = Five Pee. It helps to understand the antique finances of the Witchfinder Army if you know the original British monetary system:

Two farthings = One Ha'penny. Two ha'pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and one Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.

The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated."
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 14:23, closed)

I remember watching a program
about when the money was changed and one of the chappies involved said that he was talking to an old lady who just couldn't understand the new money. She said 'why don't they just wait for us old people to die before they change it'.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Tue 5 Apr 2011, 18:10, closed)

Except, it doesn't...
VAT is 20%, but that doesn't mean it's 20p in the £1. If I go to Tesco and buy some chocolate biscuits for £1 then I pay 16.7p in VAT.

Oh, and VAT up from 17.5% to 20% is not an increase of 2.5%. It's an increase of 2.13% (ie from 117.5% to 120%).
(Mork, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 14:49, closed)

If you go into Tesco then you get everything you deserve,

( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Tue 5 Apr 2011, 18:07, closed)